Wall Street falls in broad selloff; Twitter tumbles

US stocks fell broadly today, closing at session lows, with AIG pulling financial shares lower after disappointing earnings and as a slide in Twitter took down other names in the technology and internet space.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in Ukraine, where supporters of Russia and of a united Ukraine are accusing each other of tearing the country apart. The former Soviet republic is sliding toward war.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 129.53 points or 0.78 percent, to 16,401.02, the S&P 500 lost 16.94 points or 0.9 percent, to 1,867.72 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 57.296 points or 1.38 percent, to 4,080.759.

European stock markets fell broadly, apart from Lisbon which swam against the tide in response to new signs of economic recovery which buoyed the country's bourse.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had reached a near 6-year high of 1,357.05 points earlier this month, closed down by 0.3 percent at 1,343.23 points.

The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also fell 0.7 percent while Germany's DAX, which hit a record high of 9,794.05 points in late January, slipped 0.7 percent to 9,467.53 points.